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> Sent from my iPhone
So I sent out a call to all Joburgers to send in some of their own stories, and I have had a great response, so over the next few weeks il be posting some new stories from Joburgers. SO here goes…..
I am a YMJG ‘er saw your post about cool JHB stories.
Great day in JHB
I found out about You make Joburg great “ when you were all standing on the corner of William Nicol and Sandton Drive cheering the passing traffic“ early one morning , I spent some time that day on the net finding out what it was all about , loved the concept and the whole day seemed to have a great positive vibe .
That afternoon on the way home from work I was stuck in traffic, also on William Nicol and I watched as a young guy kept jumping out of his car a few car lengths ahead of me and approaching other cars every time the traffic stopped.
I couldn’t see what was happening but further down the line I ended up behind his vehicle , there were 4 people In the car and this time I saw the guy jump out and head to the car next to him and pass that person a flower.
I motioned to ladies in the back of the car asking them where my flower was and they told me to come and get one, so I did, to big smiles all round. They went their way and I went mine, closer to home I pulled in at a garage and decided to pass it along, I stopped next to lady in her car, passed it to her through the window and told her that a stranger had given it to me and made me smile and I was doing the same, she smiled and said great I’ll pass it on to!
I got home wondering how many people would smile that day.
Probably the best drive home in traffic I have ever had, a super wicked day that started with “You make Joburg great” and ended with people making Joburg great.
Liam
K is for Koeksister
V is for Veldskoen
A few things that make our country an awesome place to live!
The YMJG team was invited by Apple to participate in their Ama-Zing Race, a race around Joburg with the idea to find out what makes SA, SA.
When we arrived at the Apple store, there was a line up of Minis… the whole range: Coopers, Clubman, Cooper S convertibles and the new John Works Mini. These would be our modes of transport for the day. My heart was set on getting the new yellow Cooper S convertible… what a car!
We, the YMJG team, already knew everything that makes Joburg great: THE PEOPLE! Our clue read:
‘Test out the lumbar support on the driver’s seat while you make your way around Joburg, taking pics of all favourite bits. Meet back at the iStore Sandton at 13:00, but not without a picture of Nelson Mandela (in person is preferable), elaborate road works (that’s a toughie) and a cheerful street vendor (sad ones don’t count). Once back, you’ll be turning all your photos into something Ama-Zing, all thanks to the powers of Mac.’
As we all ran out the building, we had to grab a key from a bag… I grabbed the one that I wanted. I knew it was going to be a good day!! We jumped in the car. The roof was down and our iPods playing great local music as we pulled out of the store.
Our teams had our signs on board and were ready to get snapping. We zipped around JHB in our Minis taking amazing pictures and truly seeing some amazing things. We went to Newtown and found everything we needed to… great pics of the city, Nelson Mandela bridge (how’s that for thinking? Nelson Mandela is all over our city). It was pretty awesome to drive over the bridge with the top down and the bridge structures over us. We met truly genuine people plying there trade, true artists. Do yourself a favour and go for a walk around the Market Theatre. It’s flipping cool!!
We cruised around JHB snapping awesome pics from the car with the top down. On arrival at Apple, we were given an awesome lunch and Macs to make Ama-zing photo books. It really was one of my best days at the office!
I really encourage everyone to go to there local Apple store and get involved in a really Ama-zing campaign. It’s really awesome, you get to see our country through the eyes of a stranger and you get to see what they think makes our country awesome!!
Here are a few pics, but check out facebook for all of ours.
A big thank you to Apple and Mini for such an AMA-ZING day.
YOU MAKE JOBURG GREAT
Dazza
What a day, YMJG was there in full force, but we couldn’t compete with the sounds of our national instrument, the Vuvuzela.
As the celebration began in earnest, the special guests of the day, 200 children from the Joburg Home for Vulnerable Children and Sizwile School for the Deaf made themselves space to watch the performers for the day. Steve Hofmeyer took the stage as well as Loyiso and Watershed, our Diski dancers taught the crowd the dance, and what a sight it was when the whole crowd did the soccer moves-inspired dance.
It was a showcase of the amazing spirit of Joburg. Our city came together to create an unforgettable vibe; we are a nation that sings and dances at every occasion… if yesterday was a taste of what’s to come, its time to warm up those vocal cords and put on those dancing shoes because its going to be a non-stop party.
But before I log off, I must take my hat off to the SAP, the fire department and the medics who where there in full force yesterday to help anyone at the drop of a hat… They Make Joburg Great!!
We Make Joburg Great.
You Make Joburg Great.
The time for celebrations has started.
As football fever intensifies, South Africans are preparing to celebrate. Excitement builds in the air, everyone is wearing their football Friday jerseys and makarapas pop up everywhere (makarapa’s are those really cool hard hats that our talented local street vendors make; designs cut out of the hard hat and painted in a variety of festive colours or your team). Well everyone, if you haven’t joined in yet, it’s about time, and I have the perfect event for you to start at!
100 days to 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa!
This event will be the kick off to all World Cup celebrations. Maude street in Sandton, on the Sandton Convention Centre’s doorstep, will be closed off for a celebration to remember. Music, Diski dancing, games, quizzes and live performances by SA artists are all part of the day’s activities.
YMJG will be there, with t-shirts and stickers for all. This event is open to the public and, at no charge! I know, I was also shocked. It’s free, zero, Mahala!! The party kicks off at 11h00 and continues till 15h00, so pop down even if it’s during your lunch hour. Come show your support!!
Grab a t-shirt, a sticker and have a boerie roll and celebrate true Joburg style!!
YOU MAKE JOBURG GREAT
So, I’ve been sitting here thinking of what to write in this blog, thinking of something exciting, something that people will read, something that, well, won’t make you fall asleep.
Then I thought of something a friend said to me to today. She said that she hasn’t just been spontaneous in a while, and that got me thinking… Why do we always have to think about what we’re going to do and plan weeks in advance? Why do we all congregate around the Baron bar on a Friday night, or sit on the couch all Sunday? Why don’t we ever just do STUFF? Live life more, have more fun, be more spontaneous, just be happy.
Happiness. An abstract concept, a state of mind that everyone seems to strive for, but few find. Money worries, work stress, relationship issues. It seems that happiness has become that golden pot at the end of the rainbow. “If I just get… then I will be happy.”
A few Fridays ago, “The Circus” (a name given to my group of friends, and a very good name at that) were at our usual Friday night spot… Where else, but The Baron? As usual, it was packed, full of pinstriped suit-wearing bankers and accountants, and then us. Of course everyone’s hair was perfectly dried and outfits totally stylish (and that’s just the boys). No one could move. Getting from the outside to the inside, or just getting to the loo, took at least 20 minutes.
Standing outside later in the night, the heavens opened and all the banker’s in their dry cleaned suits only rushed for cover. Girls were stampeding because – heaven forbid – their GHDed hair should be ruined. We were stuck under a tiny overhang outside and that’s where we planned on staying until it passed over. One of the circus members and I were chatting about, don’t ask me why, Step Up 2: Take it to the Streets and how cool it would be to re-enact the final scene with a dance-off in the rain. With that, my friend hurled himself into the pouring rain, and I was a step behind him. The two of us were breaking down our Justin Timberlake moves in the rain. All eyes were on us, with a look of disgust, the people thinking, “What are they doing? How could they do that… and HERE?” It didn’t take long before the rest of the circus joined us. We were dancing in the rain and singing at the top of our lungs. At that spontaneous moment we were happy, not a care in the world; we were just living in the moment.
This is not a story about how drunk we might have been or anything else. This is a call to action.
Today I had to go take pictures around Joburg. I was at the Hector Peterson Memorial; I rushed in to take the shots because I had to be back at the office ASAP. I took my shots and raced back to the car, and when I got in my car and looked back at the memorial. I decided to actually get out again and take it in. I walked around, read the stories and absorbed it. It was amazing, but something that I might have missed if I hadn’t jumped at the opportunity, something I wouldn’t have done if I had actually thought about it properly. So what if I have to stay at the office till 9 tonight? It made me happy.
Life is too short. Do something out of the ordinary, do something that you wouldn’t normally do.
Have a picnic in your back garden, go bungee jumping, climb on your roof and look at the lights in Joburg… DANCE IN THE RAIN…
Do something that makes your day, week or month great, because you are the only one that can make your life great!!
YOU MAKE JOBURG GREAT
We have had a few awesome responses from certain people over the duration of You make Joburg Great. We even had a lady from the UK who decided to move back after 11 years because of the campaign. However, I don’t think anything has pulled on our heart strings as much as this email I received last night from the US. I have now decided to make it my mission to find some money to pay for a trip back to SA for these 2… Any sponsors keen, please contact me on deano@penquin.co.za.
Hi Dean. I have a friend from Jo’burg. His name is Japhta Senkga Thoka. I met him at the local Salvation Army, here in Dallas. He will soon be forty-four years of age. He had ended-up in Dallas, after being homeless in New York City for over eleven years. In the summer of 2006, he was injured, a severe head injury, while working at a summer camp near Glen Spey, New York. Japhta is a most remarkable man, his optimism seems inexhaustible. We’ve been working on a book about his life and I’ve gotten to know him quite well. I hope that we will be able visit before long. When I met him, he had lost all of his documentation. The staff at the Republic of South Africa Embassy in Washington were very considerate and helpful in our quest to get it restored. Lee Rondganger with The Star located his father and some other friends in the Johannesburg area.
We hope that his status in the USA will be settled soon. Unfortunately, his experience in my country has not been all that he expected. I’ve been using your site as a method to help him understand the tremendous changes that have taken place there since he left. I would be willing to send you a short synposis of some of our notes that will be included in the book. He would be thrilled to receive some correspondence from “home”. He was born in Alexandra Township in February, 1966.
Thank you, I enjoy visiting your site.
Murphy Pickett
Can’t wait to meet them both and get everyone to welcome them at the airport. It reminds us of the change we have achieved and what all of you are helping to do towards the perception of Joburg internationally! From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
If you haven’t done so already, please see the YMJG video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfecIrOXrdM.
Deano.
The New Year is upon is. Just like that. Your resolutions have been made with the optimism that January brings and hopefully this year, you’ll stick to at least half of them! 🙂 I made two. One, to learn to play a musical instrument and I am now shopping for drums. Secondly, to push YMJG into a different realm. The waters were tested during the last quarter of ’09 and I feel Twenty Ten is the time to make it rock properly. Are you ready?
Loads to look forward this year. Super 14 is just around the corner, Proteas host England at Wanderers next week (hopefully it will be 1-1 by then) and then of course, Joburg will become the centre of the World for 6 weeks during the World Cup. I heard 85% of all visitors will go through Sandton at one point. That’s huge. The bottom line is, Sandton will not make people return or get visitors to tell their mates to come to Joburg. The only thing that will, and it is bound to happen, is you. You will make Joburg, 2010 and the World Cup Great. Hope you’re ready for the year of your life…
We have the video up of everything we’ve done so far, click on the image to check it out and send it around to everyone who lives in Joburg. It’s a great way to start the year…
All the things we've done
So Happy New Year, welcome back, let’s rock 2010 and have an awesome year, because YOU MAKE JOBURG GREAT.
Deano
Greg Kockott
youmakejoburggreat
You Make Joburg Great 
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